It’s a Festivus miracle!!! Well, ok, not really but it sure seemed like it was snowing on the way home tonight. A couple of bags of small feathers had been dumped on the freeway and so for a short spell of road there were small ‘flakes of snow’ dancing in the air on the car as I drove along. It sure reminded me of some precarious nighttime winter drives in the English Lake District but, alas, it was just feathers. I wish I had had my camera to hand, it would have made a great photo.
Browsing Posts in General
Back in July I received the pink slip from my bank enabling me to transfer my MINI’s title to my name. Around the same time I got notice that my registration was due by Aug 22. I sent the transfer form, pink slip and cheque for the transfer fee to the CA DMV in late July and early August I went online to pay my registration: no luck, the online registration was no longer accessible to me because of the pending title change.
So I waited a bit, and just before the trip to Alaska I got a letter from the DMV returning the pink slip saying I needed to pay another $226 before they could complete the transaction. Well, this was the registration amount so it looked like they couldn’t do one without the other. I sent them the cheque return mail.
When we got back from the cruise there was another letter from the DMV. This one had a receipt for my cheque but a demand for me to send back the pink slip. I suppose it was foolish of me not to send the pink slip back the first time but I figured that if they had needed it they would have kept it? Plus, the letter said quite clearly “send the following items: check for $226″, no mention of the slip. So now it’s way past Aug 22 and I have no title or tags, and I’m just waiting for the CHP to stop me and for me to try explaining my situation.
Before I went to Alaska I highly doubted I would see a single MINI, after all there are no dealers in the state and a rugged 4×4 seems like it would be more useful half the time. So it was with some surprise and delight that I saw my first MINI within minutes of getting in the taxi from the airport in Anchorage. Over the trip I saw maybe 5 or 6 MINIs, including one in Juneau which is only accessible by boat or plane, and has maybe only 50 miles of roads – seems an awful shame to have a MINI and not be able to go on any long drives.
Hybrid Technologies, out of Nevada, is developing an electric Mini Cooper that uses lithium batteries and will be available next year for $59,000. The Hybrid Technologies site lists the MINI’s range as 120+ miles, but Frank Ziegler, Hybrid’s director of sales and distribution, apparently said it would be 160 miles. Assuming a gas price of $3 per gallon, you’d have to keep the car for at least 14 years to recoup the additional investment!
I think I’ll wait for the diesel version.
Finishing up some already-late features on my web application, then I’ll soon be driving home to sleep and then Vegas in the morning. Hope to see some of you there. Look for us on the Death Valley Run, the Strip Cruise (ooh, now that sounds like a fun vacation!), the Poker Run and hanging around at the Banquet, maybe a mixer or two. Also, I am tentatively scheduled for a Saturday 10am install at Helix13 for the charcoal custom dial face. Drive safe y’all.
One of the vendors at AMVIV is Cockpit Specialties which makes custom dial faces like the ones you see below. I think this might look pretty sweet in Carrie though at $149 I’m not sure its worth it. Their web site says it should take 1 to 2 hours for a novice to install but when I looked I saw too many things that said ‘danger’ for me to want to try. I wonder if they’ll be doing installs at the event….
I’ve left 4 voicemails and sent one email and no reply from Brecht about my missing window-up circuit. I suppose I have to assume it is gone. Tomorrow I will send a fax care of the service manager to voice my frustration.
Funny thing is, last week I thought about writing a letter congratulating them on a well-run ship.
My MINI Pics
